Why doesn’t Silktide offer an accessibility plugin or overlay?

A toolbar or plugin which claims to fix accessibility issues is known as an “overlay”. Among web accessibility experts these overlays are not held in high regard.

To give some recent examples:

Paciello Group

“Just in the last month or so before writing this article, there have been multiple lawsuits that have gone forward to a settlement involving websites that use these same overlay technologies … It’s a good concept in theory but the technologies aren’t advanced or mature enough”

Hunt Huey PLLC, defends ADA lawsuits

“If your business wants to avoid getting sued under the ADA because of an inaccessible website an accessibility overlay or widget isn’t going to help you. I can say this with some certainty because in the last two weeks alone five lawsuits have been filed against businesses that use an accessibility widget or overlay on their websites.”

UsableNet

“People with disabilities who require assistive technology to use and navigate websites already have preferred assistive technology that they use every day … An overlay attempts to replace the functionality of these devices … WCAG does not reference accessibility overlays as a means of conforming”

https://blog.usablenet.com/3-reasons-why-accessibility-overlays-fall-short

Whilst we frequently receive requests for Silktide to offer a solution like this, we would not in good conscience be able to do so. We know that it would not help anyone improve their accessibility, and we would have to deceive our customers to claim otherwise.